This invention relates to medical guidewires typically used by physicians to gain access to restricted regions of the body and over which therapeutic devices such as small-diameter interventional catheters are threaded for insertion to a point of interest. The invention also relates to acoustic imaging within the body employing a rotating transducer arrangement.
It has long been recognized that acoustic imaging by a catheter containing a rotating transducer is useful in visualizing conditions of the body. It has been obvious that a therapeutic device, if sufficiently large, could be slid over such a catheter for insertion to a point of interest. However, practical features have not been available to enable realization of an acoustic guidewire, i.e., a true guidewire that contains a rotating transducer and which simultaneously provides the hand with the feel and torquability of a typical guidewire for enabling introduction of small-diameter therapeutic devices in typical guidewire fashion, and which also has a useful acoustic imaging capability.